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Comment by sandofsky | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how you phrase the offer.

If I were planning to interview with a company and they suggested I use the service, I would get the impression the company is cheap beyond practicality, and find a way to politely back out of the interview.

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I would think the same.

There's obviously a market for people who don't mind sleeping with strangers but I'm definitely not in it. I'm way too paranoid that I would get robbed.

The credit card cloning example from the original article would probably be my biggest fear. I'd be checking my credit card purchases multiple times a day for weeks I'm sure. While actually there I'm sure I would put my wallet, phone and anything else that's valuable in a bag and sleep on top of it. It wouldn't be a very relaxing night's sleep just before an interview.

On the other hand, hostels tend to be cheaper than AirBnB and I have no problems sleeping there.

You're scared of getting robbed by a middle-class condo owner, but you'll happily share a hostel room with 6 traveling youths?

Most hostels have dorm and private room options. I just get the private room. It's more expensive than the dorm but way less expensive than a hotel. I've never slept in a hostel that only offered dorm rooms.

I'm just as paranoid about the dorm option.

I have stayed in a few hostels with lots of people... met lots of fun and interesting people. Never once had any issues.

Just curious, is this true mostly in a certain region or all over the world? Also, what kind of price different should I be expecting between the dorm and the private room?

I'm not sure, I've mostly only stayed in hostels in Canada. The last one I stayed at in Ottawa had rooms for 25$/night in the dorm or 60$/night for a private single bed room.

http://www.ottawahostel.com/

In most of Europe it seems ~20 euros/night for a dorm bed is about the standard.

I'm used hostels (& couch surfing) quite a lot and never really had problems, but I guess it depends on the region you are traveling in.

Tallanvor's approach seems unnecessarily paranoid to me, but I don't know where he travels too.

Hostelworld says privates in New York start at $15.

http://www.hostelworld.com/hostels/New-York

The hosts on Airbnb don't get your credit card info...Same as, you know shopping on Ebay.

I just moved across country. I stayed at 3 different places of Airbnb over the course of 2 weeks while I looked for a place with roommates off Craigslist. Each host was great and I never felt anything but safe. The only reason I stayed at multiple is because they had other bookings coming in so I couldn't extend.

I think he meant someone picking up your card and duping it while you sleep (since it's not a hotel and there's shared access).

One of the major problems with modern society is this paranoia that everything on the news is true, and a good representation of the general population.

I have stayed in 100s of shared hostel rooms, never had a problem. I have heard stories, we all have heard stories, but they are so minor to be negligible. You are in more danger getting to the hostel/house than you are once you are there.

I suggest you actually get out more and experience people, share a room, it is a great way to stop your foolish attitude. If you have a car, then you are already way to cut off from the real world.

You lost me on the hostel part, but that could be because I'm getting old. :) And the credit card issue isn't that much of a problem since AirBnB handles it and the person you're renting from never sees it.

I considered using AirBnB for a trip I just booked to Greece, but I decided against it. For several reasons:

1. I don't know how clean the place will be. With a 3 or 4 star hotel with good reviews online, I can be fairly certain I'll get a place that is clean. 2. I don't know how secure the place will be. The rooms I booked all have in room safes, so I can leave my netbook in my room and be fairly certain it will be there when I get back. 3. Getting a private apartment on AirBnB isn't that much cheaper than a hotel. No offense to the hosts offering a room in their place or their couch, but when I'm on vacation, I don't want to share a place with people I don't know. I'm just not that type of person.

All of that adds up to general uncertainty over the use of AirBnB. And if a company I was interviewing with wanted me to use AirBnB to find a place to stay, well, that would give me serious reservations as to whether or not I'd want to work there. The possible exception would be if I were interviewing with AirBnB themselves.

Because robbers love a paper trail . . .

I agree that suggesting airbnb would be a turnoff. But this is not why, at least not for me.

There's a difference between being cheap and being frugal. Learn to recognize the difference. Frugality is a good sign, cheapness isn't.

Frugality: "If at all possible, I'd prefer if you used airbnb. If you don't want to, that's cool."

Cheapness: "We won't spend more than $50 a night in San Francisco."

What potential hire would want to risk offending them by turning down their preference, though? You're introducing pressure and sending a signal.

Frugality is better applied to ink cartridges than employee comforts, IMO.

ie. skimp on commodities, not on talent

Skimping on commodities that affect the talent is skimping on the talent.

I guess that is why thousands of startups are running out of run-down brick warehouses covered in a swipe of fresh paint in some of the most seismically unstable areas of San Francisco; because people care that their companies are skimping on rent.

I was referring specifically to the skimping that reaches the level where it effects the talent.

Choosing functional real estate can certainly be fine. But what would you think of a startup that chose Oakland over SF to save even more money?

Perhaps they should turn it around: offer the applicant the choice, without stating a preference. If he chooses the hotel, it counts against him, because startups need to be frugal. The applicant should realize that they're not just interviewing him, but perhaps a dozen others and the difference adds up.

On the other hand, when he's hired, he should expect to be made comfortable: don't skimp on chairs, displays, airconditioning, etc. Whether that's the case should become clear during the interview: it's also about "do I want to work here?"

If I had a strong enough preference for not using airbnb, I would. If my choice of accommodations is that big an issue, I probably don't want to work there anyway.

I'd love for the company to be frugal with everything that isn't related to my salary.

My salary? No, I don't want the feeling that they're going to knock me down to as low as I'll accept, I've worked hard to develop my skills and I deserve a paycheck. The OP's company could spend an extra 100 bucks per interview and have way higher odds of a good impression from the interviewee. It's like tipping really well when you order your first drink and getting good service for the rest of the night, first impressions matter.

  The OP's company could spend an extra 100 bucks per interview and have
  way higher odds of a good impression from the interviewee

If the startup you're interviewing at needs to make a good impression to be graced by your future employment, then your sense of entitlement is way to large.

I'd rather see them save 12*100 bucks, so they can buy me a decent chair when they hire me.

Meh, if they're already flying me out and putting me up, and skimp on the extra 100 bucks to put me in decent lodging, they're likely to cut corners other places as well.

The issue isn't even the 100 bucks, it's the fact that they're telegraphing that they don't know how important first impressions are, and they'll cheap out on me given the first opportunity.

As far as my sense of entitlement, well, what the market will bear and all that. It's not that I insist on 4-star lodging, it's that the company is sending a message by asking me to do AirBnB or couchsurfing or whatever. If this is a scrappy pre-funding startup with an awesome idea, ok, if I like the idea, I'll play ball. If it's a business that wants to hire me as an employee, that's different.

In a down market, there are some people who would accept a wet cardboard box for the night if they thought that showing frugality would get them the job.

You have to wonder how many of your interviewees were thinking along those lines when you made the offer.

It could also be that they want them to interact with locals, learn a bit more about the area they would be living if they got the job. Make sure they like the area, you don't really get that same impression staying in a city hotel.

Frugal: "We only pay for cheap hotels."

Cheap: "We won't pay you overtime for business trips."

I, on the other hand, would have a higher impression of the company, as I think that promoting and supporting business models that more directly enable individuals to make a living without a lot of middlemen is important right now.

That doesn't make literal sense. AirBnB is a middleman, but the enabling type just like Craigslist or PayPal or eBay or something.

Of course. My comment wasn't phrased extremely well. They just don't do much other than providing centralization of information. That's why "without a whole lot of middlemen" -- the line between AirBnB and the individual is pretty direct.

I think that services like that are important right now, and I'm glad that they exist.

You're not interviewing with a company: you're interviewing with a startup. They're not going to offer you the salary you could get elsewhere either. If you take that as a sign they're cheap, you do not want to work for a startup.

I've worked at two startups.

There's nothing wrong with being cheap. That's why I included the phrase "beyond practicality."

How much are you spending to fly out the applicant? How many man hours will be spent on the interview process? If you're willing to risk these investments to save $50, I consider that impractical.

That argument presupposes that you are taking a risk. However, that is the point under discussion: is it a risk? You could also consider it in a positive way: people that are put off by something as irrelevant as where they stay, that worry about comfort, are less likely to be a suitable candidate. There'll be more uncomfortable circumstances to deal with.

Of course, this is from my point of view: I presuppose that 'where you stay' is irrelevant, because I consider it irrelevant. If I have to sleep on a couch in the founder's living room, so be it. Perhaps you are right that one should best err on the safe side of caution by providing a hotel. Nobody's ever been fired for providing a hotel room :P

If you can't deal with a reasonable level of cheap, don't apply at a startup. You don't get rich by spending other peoples money on hotel rooms.

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